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++SPOILERS++This is a re read. Read back in the early 90's.3.5 starsNot going to attempt to summarize this, just going to make a few points.-Best to read in order. -Ciani is absent from the book.-The 1st 40% bored the fuck out of me and could have been eliminated entirely or drastically reduced. I skimmed most of it.-After the 40% it finally gets better.-There is no romance-Very repettitive-Hesseth dies -Jennsyne dies As I said above, the first 40% was painfully boring. The author has a tendency...
Again simple plot as priest Damian and undead sorcerer Tarrant continue their uneasy alliance into another hearth of darkness but Erna is everything but a simple place and still one of most interesting fantasy (I see people calling it science fantasy but I disagree with that, this is high fantasy without much science elements) settings I came across.I found this book more enjoyable than than first one largely because this book doesn't involve Ciani who was annoying throughout most of the first b...
This book has a plot that holds up a mirror to the first one, which has some benefits of setting up some beautiful parallels (it also uses this structure to set up expectations about what's really going on with the plot and play it off beautifully) but has some detriments: there is a loooong stretch at the beginning where it feels like the characters don't do anything that parallels the stretch before the protagonists meet in book 1 -- so they go places and see things but it's very passive. And
When True Night Falls; Or, How Gerald Vryce Finally Learned to Stop Worrying and Love That Hunky Bombshell & Immortal Vampire Damian TarrantI don't have any issues with plus-sized people; several of my friends including people I've dated have been plus-sized and they are all compelling and adorable. same goes for plus-sized books. I like something sturdy to put my arms around, I love getting lost in them, and they are also often compelling although maybe not "adorable" per se. but with this book...
3.5 starsWhen True Night Falls is the second book in C.S. Friedman’s COLDFIRE trilogy. You’ll want to read the first book, Black Sun Rising, first. This review may spoil some of that first book’s plot.At the end of Black Sun Rising, Reverend Damien Vryce, the devout warrior priest, discovered the source of the evil that is infecting his country — it lies across the ocean where there exists another continent that humans are aware of but know nothing about. In the past, several expeditions have be...
When True Night FallsBook 2 of the Coldfire TrilogyBy C.S. FriedmanA Retroview by Eric AllenI honestly can't believe I've never come across this trilogy before now. I can't believe that no one I know has ever suggested it to me, or mentioned it in conversation. It takes place in one of the best thought out, and vividly created worlds I have ever read. And the story is both epic in scope, and quite entertaining to read. And so, it was not until twenty years after its publication that a copy of th...
With the rough and lumbering sort of swagger born in a creative storm’s dynamic struggle to express old ideas in new ways, balance theological/humanitarian morals with the excitment of visceral visuals and tremendously perilous exploits, and constantly Work the reader with the indulgence of emotionally loquacious prose designed to stretch any who even think about reading the book to the limit, the second act of C.S. Friedman’s Coldfire Trilogy, spectrally titled When True Night Falls, succeeds i...
4.5 to 5.0 stars. Excellent sequel to the superb Black Sun Rising and book two of the Coldfire trilogy. I am a big fan of C.S. Friedman and this series is one of the big reasons why. Highly Recommended!!
Damien, Tarrant and Hesseth the Rakh woman (Rakhs are Erna´s native species) dare to cross the ocean to find and destroy their enemy the Dark Prince who has built his palace in the Black Lands on the eastern continent. Arriving there after a long journey they find a wealthy empire but have soon to realize all that glitters isn´t gold. They are forced to flee and embark on a journey to find the crystal palace of their enemy through a hostile wasteland. On their way they rescue the young girl Jens...
Do you like power? Do you like things that are drippy? Boy are you in luck!! Seriously, I’ve never seen so many aquatically modified power descriptions. The power rolled off of him in waves. The power cascaded down his body and streamed out of his fingers like powerful little squirt guns. The power washed over him in waves and splishy splashed down past his powerful bottom before flooding to his magical feet where the power spurted in jets from his big toe.Okay, it wasn’t that bad. Probably. I w...
There was never any doubt that I would read this novel—I enjoyed the first installment a great deal and it is part of my Science Fiction & Fantasy reading project. Not only that, but I found all three volumes at the popular used book sale in my city and had them on hand. If all of that wasn’t enough, last year at the When Words Collide writers’ conference, Peter V. Brett recommended it. He was on a panel about female characters in fantasy fiction and I came away quite impressed with his views. (...
It's not too often that I give up on a book but this was one of those times.After getting about 3/4 of the way through this book I had to stop. My biggest complaint about this book is about the characters. Tarrant and Vryce were fleshed out and I got to know them inside and out.The other charters? Hesseth is a cat woman and there was a girl. That, honestly, is about as much as I can, or care, to remember about them.My next complaint is with the moral conflict that Vryce is experiencing. Every de...
The second book in the series was better than the first. I really liked the writing style in the first book, but here it is even better. While reading, you can see the writing improving. The relationships between the characters are deeper and a new character is introduced, who is very interesting. The main evil character remains the same, but there is a different secondary one. I liked him better than the woman in the first book, because I found him more believable. The priest isn't so frustrati...
***SPOILER WARNING***I was expecting it to be somewhat tedious, even though I remember it as being good when I first read it 10-15 years ago. However, I was pleasantly surprised, and it was difficult to put it down each day and pace myself through a week of lunch breaks & train rides.That being said, Hesseth's death, while serving and obvious point, just seems silly and weak, and further emphasized to me, the weakness and lack of definition of the female "leads" in this book & Black Sun Rising.
This is where things become convoluted, still worth reading.
Okay, so I enjoyed this book much more than the first, but it becomes complicated. I actually think this is a much better book in just about every way. The characters have grown more and grown together more. The world becomes infinitely more developed, and developed in some of the most interesting ways they could have. It still feels like a JRPG, which isn't a bad thing, but this also brings me to my issue with the book.SPOILERSThe end to the novel's conflict is a seriously unpleasant manipulati...
Most of my gripes about this series can be found in my review of the first book, but I will say that the strongest part by far of this novel is the prologue, where we get more of the backstory of Friedman's world...and the worldbuilding is by far the strongest part of this series. In this novel, the "map" gets enlarged and we get to discover new lands, new cultures, new threats...and that is all that kept me turning pages.The characters remain 2d and one trick, and even The Hunter is losing some...
This book was stronger in writing, but the story was still confusing. Though, since I am writing this review after just finishing book three, I guess everything does make sense in some strange way.The characters Damien, Hesseth, and Tarrant decide to road trip across the plains. This time they are trying to find out what is on the other-side of this vast ocean. Apparently over the last thousand years or more, three times mankind has tried to cross only to be slaughtered like crazy.Apparently on
When True Night Falls is just as good as its predecessor, if not more so. Unfortunately, it took me an extremely long time to finish mostly because I had less personal time to spend reading. This book is not much different from its predecessor. It is a fairly straightforward adventure novel with a very small cast of characters spanning over 600 pages. Something that I admire about this series is that it manages to always hold my attention even after 500 pages in. This is something that many book...
This is by far the best series I have ever read. From the start I was a little mixed about the idea of mixing Sci-Fi with my fantasy -although they are my two favorite genre’s and Sci-Fi usually has fantasy mixed in I prefer it to be a one way street.By the time Damian was in town and the Hunter was introduced I was completely convinced this lady has skills. I enjoyed everything from the basic background elements and the implied and actual politics, down to the actual physics of the magic. In th...